Monthly Archive for April, 2007

truthfulness and Chinese discussion forums (BBS)

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on April 30, 2007
in BBS, Politics and Virtual China
. 25 Comments

Wangyi_luntan

From the News BBS at Netease 网易, a discussion of how truthful you can be on Netease BBS. Could be a shill for Netease (as some of the commenters point out), but even so the discussion is interesting for its candid discussion of life in Virtual China–at least for those who want to discuss the news.  The assumption is that the more one can speak the truth on a news forum, the better it is.  Could relatively free speech be a differentiator in the BBS marketplace in China?  On the other hand, even though it’s been nominated as an "elite" post (I found it on the Netease BBS elite post list) it’s only been read by 1200 people in the last few days, a very small number. Does that mean that people see this kind of thing a lot and are jaded, or that they just don’t want to deal with this topic because it’s sensitive, or that it’s simply not important to them?

The post is titled, In all China, only on Netease does one dare speak the truth, you can speak the truth!

Every time I come to Netease I have the feeling I can speak freely! And not only this, but how many have been helped! For example, giving aid to the poor and so on! I’ve wanted to say this for a long time! At the very least it allows those with resentment or grievances to speak out and purge their anger!!

Selected comments:

Objectively speaking you love Netease because you can speak the truth
But that’s not now
It’s in the past

Compared with other forums Netease is already pretty good, at least you can get posts out…

It’s a lot better than Zhonghua–that place is garbage, you have to register just to respond to a post

The fawning posts are all here, my posts never go out so of course you don’t get to see them.

I’m suspicious!!! Why is that every post I respond to gets closed down??

You can speak the truth but once it’s said you won’t see it. They have to get by too, it’s understandable.

You can’t say everything here, you’re playing it up.

Cross-cultural analysis of MySpace profile pictures

Published
by
Jason Li
on April 29, 2007
in Photos, Portals and Translation
. 7 Comments

Let’s do a fun little exercise.

Let’s compare profile pictures of MySpace.cn’s China and international users.

Note, however, that we hold the international users classification on MySpace.cn suspect — the one profile link that DID work (for me) in the international profiles section led to a white American woman who’s profile didn’t hint at any interest in China.

First off, let’s take a look at the international lineup:

Myspace_profile4
Myspace_profile5
Myspace_profile6

We’re going to dub these as:

  1. Vacation Cool,
  2. Hot Or Not,
  3. I Have Friends.

Next up, the China lineup:

Myspace_profile1
Myspace_profile2
Myspace_profile3

And we dub these:

  1. Photoshop,
  2. Webcam Candid,
  3. Photoshop + Webcam Candid.

Granted, I refreshed the page a few times to select ones I found interesting but we can already draw some generalizations about profile pictures:

  • Chinese users do not feel compelled to present a "realistic" glamor shot. That is, they have little hesitation in using image manipulation programs to augment their picture. (This augmentation being different from using Photoshop to doctor up an existing picture within the bounds of realism.)
  • Chinese users have lower standards for their glamor shot — blurry and what i called candid webcam shots are in.
  • Closeups are in in China. Staring at the camera, however, is not.

Source: MySpace.cn–友你友我

Chinese MySpace: strange crosscultural platform

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on April 26, 2007
in Photos, Translation, Virtual China and Web 2.0c
. 5 Comments

Can NOT resist.  Myspace.cn has just opened up and you must take a look if you haven’t already.  It’s almost worth creating a MySpace page.

The front page shows 3 mainland Chinese users and 3 international users, and they can all friend each other.  How do they choose who gets on the page as international users?  Unclear.  But Tom is every Chinese MySpace user’s first friend, as usual.  Seems like there might not be that many Chinese users…or maybe not that many writing in English.  Unclear.

Myspace_cn

Maybe Chinese users will pick up on it in order to meet people from other places; or maybe there will be a Chinese-language only group that doesn’t interact at all with people outside China. If the numbers pick up in China, this could skew most popular blogs, videos, and so on on MySpace. Hard to say what will happen. Some thoughts about what could be:

  • MySpace users outside China get to expand their friends list by…exponentially.  Expect contests for most friends to move to the next level.
  • Chinese MySpace users get to make friends with some really different kinds of people than they’ve met before, like Barbie Gangsta Bitch, for instance, in the US.  They’ll talk in English mostly.
  • Non-Chinese MySpace users get exposed to a wide variety of Chinese people: from serious as in DIck, 24, in Chongqing who wants to meet "the president of every country
    the famous economists" to sassy like Kiki Lee, 24, in Shanghai. Chance to practice Chinese for all those kids in the US now studying Mandarin; chance to meet Chinese people before your next trip to China.
  • Chinese pages are for the most part uncustomized at the moment, but that will no doubt change.  Everybody gets to see what the others like, listen to, and think is funny.  Perhaps some trading and remixing might go on, new fads, new widgets, etc.. 
  • Indie music outside of China gets exposed to the Chinese market; and vice versa.  Possibilities there.

old-school chinese cars

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on April 25, 2007
in Design, History and Photos
. 0 Comments

Came across this during my car roaming yesterday.  The China Motor Vehicle Documentation Centre, founded in the Netherlands in 1972 and currently located in France, publishes a series of what look like wonderful books on automotive history of China and North Korea. They have, for instance, a book on the history of the Hongqi (Red Flag) limousines, made by the First Auto Works in Changchun, China, once the favored ride of top Chinese officials. The oldest cars in this book are the Dongfeng CA 71 (1958), the Da Hongqi limousines (1958- 1995), and the Da Hongqi inspection cars (1958- 1999). 

Hongqi

Then there’s the just-out book on North Korean trucks and cars.  From the website blurb:  Trucks made by the Sungri General Auto Works, Heavy dumper made by the March 30th Works, Cross country vehicles made by the Pyongsang Auto Works, Trolleybuses made by the Pyongyang Trolleybus Works, Buses made by the Chongjin Bus Works, The Pyonghwa Auto Works

Northkorean_car

Also, Shanghai Saloons from the Artisan Era, describing all cars (production models and prototypes) made by the Shanghai Auto Works in Shanghai from 1958 until today.
Shanghai_saloons

The books are pricey, ranging from 55-69 euros, but they look beautiful!

technology, nature + cars in Shanghai

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on April 24, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

2007 Auto Shanghai (English site here) opened over the weekend and is exhibiting all this week. There were over 100,000 people on the first day. The theme of the show is "Technology and Nature in Harmony."  Kind of different!  I know that Shanghai planners are serious, and aware, of the issues related to car ownership in the city.  With a government that can create the necessary infrastructure for energy efficient and alternative fuel vehicles, as well its super high population density and environmental pollution problems, China could in fact be a leader in creating new forms of public and private transportation.   

Motortrend.com has a great article (in English) detailing all the vehicles, foreign and Chinese-made, at the show. The Shanghaiist has the view from a local perspective, and notes:

Local Chinese automakers continue to be white-hot. Ten years ago, Chery
didn’t exist—today it’s one of the top five producers in China, with a
hefty contract from Chrysler to export small cars to the USA. Geely, Brilliance, Great Wall, Roewe
to name a few—the list of local names is long and keeps growing.
Beijing’s long-term goal is for Chinese companies to produce the
majority of cars in China. It’s a matter of when, not if.

Sina auto BBS is full of posts and photos mainly about the girls, such as The models are wearing so little, how can we look at the cars?

One of the more interesting vehicles being exhibited: Beijing Autoworks amphibious vehicle. Maybe that’s what they mean by technology and nature in harmony–surfing the waves in your amphicar. 

Baw_amphicar

Baw_amphi_2

非常真人’s photo-comic blog

Published
by
Jason Li
on April 23, 2007
in Art, BBS, Blogs and Photos
. 1 Comment

非常真人，非常娱乐 (Very Real People, Very Entertaining) is a blog that posts short, amusing photo-comics of every day life in Beijing. Whose life? In most cases it’s the middle-class youth. Even though I don’t find every comic funny, the photography and the postures employed in each scene are pure gold.

Here’s an example of an entry I found particularly funny (translation in maroon):

20070423_feichangzhenren

And here’s a link to a post where 小胖 (Little Fatty, blogged here and here).

Go to the 非常真人，非常娱乐 blog.

Chinese blog collective, in English

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on April 22, 2007
in Blogs, Meme, News, Translation and Virtual China
. 1 Comment

Memedia is a Chinese blogging collective that, as I noted last month, is a project of Isaac Mao’s among others.  It’s going strong with its 6th issue (looks like the longest yet!) put out on 4/22.  What Memedia is doing is a quantum leap into opening up dialogue and understanding across the Chinese- and English-language blogospheres and other virtual environments.  Not only does it give readers a taste of what’s top of mind for some of China’s top bloggers, it gives us access to their thoughts on technology and society in China and around the world; and it then gets translated into English at GVO (by Nan Yang, who manages to capture the tone of what must be very tough translation work).  Of course, the blog posts that Memedia references are in Chinese and still unaccessible to non-Chinese readers, but this could have an ESWN-level impact if they can keep up the momentum and the translation.  There simply isn’t anything else like it.

Issue 6 looks at everything from Twitter to the GFW censorship of Baidu Japan, from the number of Chinese sex workers to buying tickets to the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony.  Great stuff!

Essay after Grameen Foundation event

Published
by
Nan Yang
on April 22, 2007
in Education
. 4 Comments

Today I happened to see these pictures…

Student_in_the_west1_2

Studnet_in_the_west4

 

Student_in_the_west3

There were many more photos on the blog More photos that reflect those students’ lifes in western China…Very impressive, and as a person grew up in big city in China, I’ve never experienced this kind of hard learning condition, though I’ve imagined. My mind was full of sympathy and I know our government has been trying hard to help them, however, I hope more and more Chinese or even foreigners from other countries can join together to help improve these students’ lives. These photos reminded me of the Grameen Foundation event I took part in this Wednesday, April 18th in Shanghai.

Instead of raising fund,this event in Shanghai was to get the word out about their new Chinese projects.Here’s a link to a report about this event in Shanghai： Grameen Foundation event in Shanghai  And also Grameen Foundation had other events in China.Here’s the summary of one of the events in Beijing Grameen Foundation event in Beijing

It seems that Grameen Foundation would really bring more fresh ideas about helping poor people to develop their lives. At the end of the event, Kate Druschel, Regional Coordinator, East and Southeast Asia expressed her optimistic attitude about Grameen Foundation’s future in the next 5 years in China. While Grameen Foundation or any other organizations are working hard to help poor people, in my opinion, we should call for more social responsibility and more people to involve in these projects. Hopefully in the next few years we would see more excited faces instead of these sad scenes above…

“day in my life” photo contest

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on April 20, 2007
in Photos, Portals and Virtual China
. 4 Comments

Citizen journalist site Moobol.com 直播客, which is run by China Daily, is running a "day in my life" photo contest that will be over on Wed. April 25.  As described on the site:

Record the most real day in your or someone around you’s life.  Is your current life busy or leisurely? A riot of color or boring you to death? Full of gratitude or complaints?

Here’s a day in the life of a Han soldier in Tibet, here, at the end of the day, listening to his selection of Yunnanese folksongs.

Tibet_soldier

Here is "my dinner: a can of beer and a half a cucumber":

Beer_and_cucumber

tuangou: team buying cars

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on April 19, 2007
in Commerce
. 2 Comments

Tuangou_car

For those who are following the tuangou scene: www.xcar.com.cn, one of the most popular Chinese car websites, has a section for tuangou that you can see here.  As the image above shows, you’ll see a list of cars and information about the model type, the organizer, the dates of registration (in this case a two week period between April 12 and April 25), the city (in this case, Beijing), the minimum number of people required (5) and the number currently signed up (here, 3).

The most popular car on the list is the Peugeot 307 XS, in Beijing, for which 123 people have signed up.